Friday, January 15, 2010

Teodoro sees 7-8% growth in GDP

Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential standard bearer Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. is looking forward a robust seven to eight percent growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to make the country globally competitive in the next six years.

The 45-year-old Teodoro, considered the youngest among the presidential aspirants, also vowed to prioritize rebuilding the country’s economy in his first months in office, in the event that he gets elected, instead of jet-setting to other countries to pursue diplomatic and trade relations.

In avoiding expensive foreign trips, Teodoro instead emphasized the need to tap the expertise of the country’s embassy officials in strengthening economic relations with the ally nations.

"To reduce, our strategy is to sustain GDP growth at 7-8 percent within the context of globalization. To do this, we have to expand foreign trade and investments," Teodoro said.

Aside from building up government agencies to eliminate red tape and corruption, sustained growth likewise requires a long-term plan for new infrastructure to connect the country's islands, Teodoro explained.

Although they will entail huge amount of budget, Teodoro said that vital infrastructures like long bridges and underwater tunnels are the country’s answer to the accident prone roll on, roll off (RO-RO) ferry system using old, dilapidated ships.

"First, we must focus and build up our domestic capability in terms of infrastructure and institutions.We should be thinking of putting up more physical infrastructures of more roads, more bridges to link islands, more flyovers and underpasses that will be sufficient to accommodate the growing population of the next 50 years," he said.

"Here the premise is that we have the blueprint and national consensus behind it. Second, we must seek out and optimize opportunities in our existing multilateral and bilateral trade and investment regimes," Teodoro said.